IEP Field Trip to Yunus Energy Limited

IEP Members at Ali Baba CNG Station with Engr. Jamsheed Rizvi and Engr. Yousuf Jilani

Institution of Engineers Pakistan-Karachi Centre-Mechanical Division arranged a field trip to Yunus Energy Limited (YEL) at its Wind Energy Farm located at Jhimpir Jamshoro Sind on December 3, 2016.

A total of twenty five IEP Members under the leadership of Engr. Yousuf Jilani started the trip from IEP Building at 0915 Hours. As the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9) is under construction it took us two hours and thirty minutes to reach Ali Baba CNG Station where an escort vehicle of YEL was waiting for our group. After a short break we reached the destination at 1215 Hours and were greeted by Engr. Qaiser Jawed Ali Khan and his Team (YEL Group). Later a presentation was given by Engr. Awais Anjum.

The YEL Plant is a Subsidiary of Lucky Cement Limited. The Plant is a 50 MW Wind Power Generation Facility consisting of 20 Turbines each 2.5 MW Capacity, built at a cost of $110 Million. It is located in the Wind Corridor of Jhimpir. The Jhimpir Wind Corridor has an average Wind Speed>7m/s.

The Project Start Date was February 2015, Commercial Operation (COD) achieved on September 16, 2016. Nordex, Singapore and Descon Pakistan are the main Contractors of the Project respectively-the Equipment Supplier and erector. The Plant successfully went through seven days Reliability Run Test, achieving a maximum output of 51.2 MW at a Wind Speed of 14 m/s, as briefed by the Plant Personnel. The Plant is expected to be handed over to the owners YEL in the first half of December 2016.

Arial View of the YEL Facilities

The Technology

The free available Wind is captured on the turbine blades (optimum blade speed 13-15 rpm), here the Kinetic energy of the Wind Spins a Mechanical Shaft (The Shaft also supports the blade Hub, a Gear box and a Generator collectively known as “The NACELLE”). The salient design features of the Plant are as follows:

Unit Size: 2.5 MW

No of Units: 20

Components:

Nacelle - consisting of a Drive train and a Generator

Turbine Blades - 3 Nos. of 42 M Length (each).

Components Physical Specs:

Tower Height - 80 Meters

Weights

Bottom Tower - 65 Tons

Section Mid 1 - 1.58 Tons

Section Mid 2 - 2.45 Tons

Top Tower - 36 Tons

Nacelle weight - 49 Tons

Drive Train - 42 Tons

Technical Specs

Generator

Voltage - 660 Volts

Frequency - 50 Hz

Wind Speed

Cut in - 4 m/s

Average - 7.5 m/s

Maximum - 21 m/s

Cut Off - 22 m/s

Arial View of the Younus Electric Limited, Jhimpir

An arial view of YEL Wind Towers in the field

By design, the rotary motion of the shaft is maintained at a low, regulated speed. A Mechanical Lever regulates the shaft speed. A gear on the Nacelle, transforms the low rotation of the shaft to the Generator requirement of 3000 rpm at a fixed gear ratio (Gear ratio: 77.4) to match 50 c/s frequency of the Electrical System. The Electric Power is generated at 660 Volts in the Generator.

For selling the Electricity Generated at the Complex to NTDC, the Complex output should be augmented to 132 KV Network of NTDC. The Complex design provides two stage augmentation, 0.66 KV Step-Up to 22 KV in GSU transformers and in the second stage to 132 KV in Main Power transformer.

To ease the collection of Power (due to small unit sizes of 2.5 MWs at the Complex), the Power is collected in groups. For each unit of each group an RMU is installed. The output from each GSU comes in RMU individually then from each RMU, the Power combines at leading RMU (i.e. at the leading turbine of each group). Then the Power from each leading RMU is brought to substation. (The voltage collected by RMU from each GSU is done individually, and then it is RMU which contributes collection of power. GSU work is just to step up the voltage and pass it to RMU).

The output from 5 leading RMUs at 22 KV, are then brought to the substation. Here, the voltage is augmented to 132 KV in the Main Power Transformer for dispatch of the Complex to NTDC. Two Energy meters are provided for measuring export and import of Electric Energy to and from NTDC.

When the Complex is not in operation due to wind speed limitations or any other reason of Plant Outages, the Plant Auxiliaries are back fed from the NTDC Grids.

An in-house Battery system, Powers the Complex, if the Complex and the National Grid, both are simultaneously under outage.

After the presentation and question-answers session we visited the field and what we saw in the presentation all was shown in the field and was very nicely explained by the YEL Engineers.

After the field trip all the participants offer their Zohar prayers and later a very delicious lunch was served by YEL Management. All of us enjoyed the lunch and the dessert at the end.

Last but not the least Engr. Yousuf Jilani, Group Leader thank the Engr. Qaiser Jawed Ali Khan and the YEL Management on behalf of IEP and appreciated their hospitality and taking care of all the IEP Members at their facilities. We left the site by 1530 Hours and reached at IEP Building at 1730 Hours.